A fire that began on Saturday in Arnóia, in the municipality of Celorico de Basto, is now under control, with 193 operatives and 70 vehicles remaining on-site as of 21:30, according to the Sub-regional Command of Tâmega e Sousa.
Three other fires remain active in the same municipality, located in the Braga district.
In Ribas, 60 operatives supported by 18 vehicles are on location, while two incidents in the parish of Caçarilhe and Infesta involve 69 operatives and 21 vehicles.
Earlier this afternoon, Bruno Borges, Deputy Operations Officer of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), reported eight new ignitions in the Tâmega e Sousa sub-region between 17:30 and 18:00, primarily in Celorico de Basto.
From midnight until 17:00 today, the Civil Protection recorded 77 forest and agricultural fires, involving 1,697 operatives, 440 ground means, and 90 aerial operations, mainly in the northern region.
Bruno Borges of ANEPC noted, “23 of these occurrences began during the night period.”
Between Sunday and today, “35 medical emergency cases were recorded in the operations theatres, of which 21 were resolved on the ground, and 14 people, including firefighters, civilians, GNR members, and special civil protection forces, required hospital attention,” although they suffered only “minor injuries.”
As of 21:30, according to ANEPC, significant incidents are ongoing in scrubland in Sirarelhos, Vila Real, which started at 02:45 on Sunday, involving 673 operatives and 227 vehicles, and in Ribas, Celorico de Basto, initiated at 19:03 today, with 60 operatives and 18 vehicles.
ANEPC continues to advise the public to trust and follow authorities’ recommendations and to stay away from “fire zones,” as Bruno Borges emphasized that the ongoing alert seeks to “reduce the number of ignitions.”
With the increased risk of rural fires, Civil Protection elevated the state of special readiness for the rural fire-fighting device to level three, “the third most severe on a four-level scale,” Bruno Borges noted.
The five northernmost districts of mainland Portugal, namely Bragança, Porto, Vila Real, Viana do Castelo, and Braga, are under a red warning, the highest on a three-level scale, due to persistently extremely high maximum temperatures, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
The red warning will last until 18:00 on Tuesday, after which it will be replaced by an orange warning (in the case of Vila Real and Bragança) and yellow in the remaining areas.
The remaining districts in mainland Portugal are already under an orange warning until 18:00 on Tuesday, except for Beja, which will be at yellow, and Faro, which remains the only district in mainland Portugal without any warning.
